


Second Chances Seldom Come

by LazyOtaku13



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Dead People, Grim Reapers, Grim reaper au, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Multi, Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 13:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4608882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazyOtaku13/pseuds/LazyOtaku13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren Jeager, aka the suicidal bastard, must live until the precise moment he must die. His death must occur not before, and most certainly not after, his official time of death. The problem is, he has to be carefully monitored by some floating asshole who decides that his room is too messy so that he hits his time of death exactly. Not exactly a fun time for either of them. But hey, maybe there's smut?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have this work sitting around so I might as well post it.
> 
> (I say this at 1:32 am when I have loads of work to do that didn't get done earlier.)

This is the story of Eren Jeager. Senior at Trost High, home of the Titans. Part-time employee of the local game shop. Brother to Mikasa Ackerman. His story isn't long. Not really. And most of it consists of someone crying. Usually his bestfriend Armin Arlert.

Eren had a little something we like to call "the lack of the will to live." Every day it was school, work, and home again. Around and around the cycle he went. And without anyone at home to help provide for Mikasa and him, he knew that once high school was over, college wouldn't come. No, instead it would simply be work. Work and home again. How boring was that?

Sometimes he tried to spice things up a bit. Go out with a few girls, try some drugs, down a few shots of the strongest vodka available. But the next morning, things were almost always the same. School, work, and then home again.

He kicked at the dead grass in front of the school. He knew that watering the lawn was something far out of the budget, but the prickly blades of shriveled grass were painful, and if they wriggled themselves onto bare skin, the pain would be enough to make a grown man cry.

"But I really think that you should try this, Eren." Armin pleaded.

Eren glanced up at his friend. "What is it?"

Armin dubiously held out a half of a sandwich.  "Ham and avacado."

"Thanks." Eren took the offered food and began to down it rapidly. He hadn't eaten since yesterday's lunch, when Armin had given him a thermos of steamed rice and chicken. Of course, he wasn't going to tell anyone that.

"Do you want the other half? I didn't know if you would eat avacado or not. It's kind of an obscure vegetable - " he stopped mid-sentence, his eyes fixed on a random point, focusing. "Maybe it's a fruit," he continued, "Regardless, I didn't know if you'd eat it or not."

Of course Eren would. He polished off any food Armin gave him until the bell for class rang its shrill ring.

* * *

 

After school, Eren parted ways from Armin and met up with Mikasa. Earlier in the year she'd dropped out of school and worked full-time instead. He couldn't say that he agreed with her decision, but Eren knew that he had no say in what his sister did or did not do. She met him in the parking lot, waiting next to their old junker car. As per the usual, the ride to work was silent, save the radio quietly humming terrible indie music and the woosh of air passed the rolled down windows.

He hopped out of the car in front of the game shop. "OPEN" flashed in neon lights behind him as he waved Mikasa goodbye.

* * *

 

Work in and of itself wasn't a terrible thing. That is, to say, that he didn't mind it too much. Eren mostly sat behind the counter reading comics or playing video games. Easy money, he supposed. With only about a week left of school, however, his mind was elsewhere.

Armin had been bugging him all month about going to the beach. Beach this, beach that. When? How? With whom? The blonde crybaby could be persistent when he needed to be. And Eren simply would brush him off with the excuse of work. It wasn't because he didn't want to see the ocean, because living in the middle of Montana had provided a good reason for him to have never seen the sea. But Armin's boyfriend, Jean, would almost definitely be there.

Jean, or horseface as Eren called him, was kind of an ass. He liked to show off, talk a lot, and was pretty negative. This was Armin's "type," apparently. Jean was from a moderately poor family. Not as poor as Eren's, of course, but still impoverished enough to warrent a part-time job at the very same game store. As routine would dictate, there was Jean, early to work by just enough to make Eren look bad.

"Cutting it close, huh Jeager?" he sneered.

Eren simply ignored him. After he clocked in, he sat at the counter, flipping absentmindedly through one of the new shipments of comics. Much to his relief, Jean didn't say anything else as he stocked shelves and hovered in the corner fixing the displays.

"Hey," Eren's coworker began, "Do you think if I moved to Washington State and asked Armin to come with me, he would?" Jean was so quiet Eren almost didn't hear him.

"Excuse me?" he snarled, looking up from his overly-violent comic. "Why would you waste you money moving if you can just live here with him?"

Jean scowled. "Yeah well I just - gay marriage." He started coughing.

This really got Eren's attention. "Gay marriage?" he asked, "Jean, you lost your first boyfriend in some terrible factory tour accident not even three years ago, what makes you so certain that my best friend is _the one_?"

His words shut Jean up until the end of the shift, when Mikasa promptly picked him up and drove back to the house.

* * *

 

His bed was a relief. Eren stared up at the ceiling. Much to his surprise, the ceiling stared back. No, rather, it was a person, on the ceiling, staring back. It took a lot of restraint for him to not scream. The short figure dropped to the floor soundlessly.

"If you scream you're gonna look like a nutjob, kid." he said. His dark coat settled around him, making him seem small, yet powerful.

"Oh yeah?" Eren challenged. "Well get out of my house!"

The figure rolled his eyes. "Look, brat, it doesn't work like that. You're gonna die and I'm gonna make sure you don't die until your alotted time. That way we don't clog up the system like we did a few years ago. God Damn that was a long and difficult fix." He started meandering around Eren's small room, glancing at things, but never touching them.

"What? Who are you? What do you want?" In all honesty, Eren just wanted the crazy man gone.

"I'm Levi. And I want to make sure you don't die  before your allotted time."  the man's tone was flat.

Eren snorted. "Right. Well I'll call the nearest institution and make sure you get a nice place to stay, okay?" He turned and reached for his cellphone.

He stopped in his tracks when Levi replied, "If you make that call, the only person heading to a nut house would be you." When Eren stopped moving he continued, "Only you can see me. Don't believe me?" He didn't wait for an answer, "Go out and talk to your sister. I'll follow. See what she says."

Eren narrowed his eyes doubtfully and reluctantly did as he was instructed. Heading out to the kitchen where Mikasa was gracefully cutting up vegetables, he said, "Hey Mikasa. Whachya makin'?" He glanced over his shoulder to see the stranger following him, as he said he would.

She glanced up at him for a split-second befor returning to her cooking. "Lunch for tomorrow." she replied. She flicked her eyes back up at him again, catching him glancing over his shoulder. She frowned and asked, "Eren, what's wrong?" there was a mother-like tone to her voice that made Eren compulsively roll his eyes.

"Ah - nothing. Just got this weird feeling like I'm forgetting something." he lied. While he wasn't a good liar, he most certainly wasn't terrible. Thankfully Mikasa didn't press him further. He just about started shouting at his unwelcome guest when he put his hand in front of Mikasa's face, covering her eyes. He looked over to Eren with a smirk on his face.

Eren marched back to his room, leaving a busy Mikasa to her work. He closed the door and hissed, "Okay so I believe you now. Well sort of." he flopped down onto his creaky bed. "But," he continued, "what makes you so sure I'm gonna die?" Eren wasn't certain he wanted an answer from his invisible visitor, but the question had already been asked, and there was no taking it back.

Levi brushed a hand over a faded photo of Eren and his mother. The frame moved a slight bit as he did so. "You ask like you're unaware of the fact that you're a suicidial bastard." His voice was full of indifference, and it stung Eren a little to hear it.

Not that he wasn't used to a little stinging. His arms bore many marks,  accumulated over his years. Some were fresher than others. Some longer. Some deeper. It was a controlled sting, though. It was grounding.

And while he had looked over the edge of the bridge near his school, glanced at the rope in the garage multiple times, and shaken pill bottles until the noise irritated him, he never completed his darker urges.

Eren stared at Levi. "So how am I gonna die? Might as well just speed it up, right? Not let me waste anymore space?" he added a small laugh at the end, but Levi knew he wasn't joking.

"Like I told you earlier," the man explained, "I'm here to make sure you don't die _before_ your allotted time. Or after, for that matter." He didn't seem to worried that Eren would miss his time of death. Eren wasn't worried about it either.

Eren stood and stripped down, much to Levi's surprise. The young man hopped into bed and pulled the covers over his head. If you sleep on something and pretend it doesn't exist, then it'll go away, right?

 


	2. Post-It Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter about this important step of life called "waking up in the morning every morning."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Out of everything I've already written for this fic, I like this part the best. Why? Because Eren is acting like a human being. Smelling his armpits before he gets dressed and everything.

Eren reached his arm out from under the warmth of the covers to slam the snooze button on his alarm clock. He slapped wildly at the nightstand next to his bed until he finally succummbed to the notion that he would probably need to utilize his eyes to locate the source of the obnoxious noise. He swore as light flooded his face, and squinted, searching for that damn alarm clock. Oh and did he find it.

Levi stood over him, short in stature perhaps, but massive in mood. He glared at Eren, holding the blaring alarm clock just out of the boy's reach.

"Fuck you." Eren breathed.

"Get your lazy ass out of bed brat. Education matters." came the reply.

Just to spite him, Eren curled back up under the covers. He didn't feel like going to school that day. He didn't feel like oding anything, for that matter. He was slowly convincing himself that he should skip out on his responsibilities and just become a bed limpet.

The sea life remined him of Armin, and then of the notes he borrowed from Armin, and then of the test Armin had tried to get him to study for. Eren threw the covers off and began swearing like a sailor, skimming notes and cramming information into his head as best he could. It would be enough to get him a solid C, he figured. Armin's notes, or rather the notes Armin took from his notes to make them simpler for Eren, were comprehensive enough that a quick read would be enough to do well on any test. And Eren thanked every god in the universe for giving him such an amazing best friend.

Levi set the alarm clock back down and watched Eren curiously. The boy was flipping wildly through pages, skimming them and repeating key words until he burned them into his short-term memory. What a shitty way to study, he thought.

Eren made a mad dash for the bathroom as he smelled his armpits. He recoiled and grabbed a spare pair of boxers and a t-shirt. Levi rolled his eyes. Clearly proper hygiene was something that his new case needed help with. He continued to scan the room. It was messy. He tidied it mindlessly. The sister had already left for work. Early shifts were terrible, he decided. Leaving Eren alone to shower and dress, he wandered the house.

He knew enough about the people that lived there that he felt as though he could puke. It wasn't a comfy place to live. Adequate. Old, stained furniture served its purpose, even if it looked terrible. Appliances worked enough to be usable. But the house wasn't the issue. It was the people. The person. The father, if one would dare to call him that. Grisha Jeager, asshole of the year, was a doctor. Or rather, he claimed to be a doctor, selling placebos and probably weed. He also had the tendency to take out a bad day on his son.

It made Levi feel grimy just thinking about it. He wasn't given details, simply a notification. A cryptic message from a fellow caseworker that was barely legible - dammit Hanji if they're important at least make them readable - was all that he had to figue this kid out. A fucking post-it note. That's his life's story, his supervisors told him. That's all there is. A list of important points. Nothing else to him.

Bullshit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lemme know how I did with this fic so far. Yay? Nay? Any responses are appreciated. Thank you.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren takes a shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapters are really short, but they're easier to write like this. Hopefully it's not too irritating. As consolation, I do post fairly frequently. (But consistently? What is this "consistent" you speak of?)
> 
> Also, I am not suicidal, nor have I ever cut myself or anything of the like. I'm writing all of this purely out of my knowledge gleaned from past reading as well as stories from friends. If something is really wrong with how I'm writing something, I'd like to make it as accurate as possible, so let me know. Thanks. I really appreciate it.

He heard Eren stumble in the shower and he passed through the bathroom door - a perk of being sort of dead and not dead. He ripped the shower curtain back and the poor kid looked horrified, covering his vital areas with bloody hands. Blood. There was blood seeping from fresh cuts on his arms and Levi sighed.

"Seriously?" he asked Eren. "Are you trying to make this job difficult for me, or are you just being a shithead?"

The kid seemed genuinely confused and mildly embarassed about his nude state. "No?" he replied, unsure. "I mean I do this like once a week and I haven't died?" It was pathetic. He was pathetic. A pathetic shithead who was really fucked up.

Levi sighed and slid the shower curtain closed. He left and let Eren finish his business. Eren, on the other hand, shook slightly from the humiliation after his unwanted guest left. This was his private business, he thought, and while it was a danger to his life, he wasn't dead yet.

Eren slipped on one of his treasured long-sleeve shirts. To make it look like a fashion choice, he layered it with a t-shirt on top. He didn't need anyone besides Mikasa and Armin, and now apparently Levi, to know that he was so damaged.

As he packed his bag for school Levi asked, "So why'd you even start, huh?"

"As a grim reaper shouldn't you already know that?" he shot back.

Levi sniffed. "All I know is how you're gonna die. I'm not supposed to give a shit about the kind of person you are, and yet here I am, giving a shit about the kind of person you are."

Eren thought about that for a moment before answering, "Well I don't really know why I started. It was a suggestion from some asshole at work, actually. Or a threat. But," he paused, "I'm not dead yet."

It irked Levi how calm this kid was. He was accepting that he was going to die, he wanted to die, and he didn't even know why he felt like shit? No. That's not possible. "Bullshit." Levi whispered. He wasn't even sure if he'd said it, but Eren's face told him that he'd let it slip.

"Fine. Look." Eren huffed, "My mom died because of me, and having control over the kind of pain I feel just seemed like the best route alright?" He ended up shouting, causing the sister to barge in and query him on his mental health.

"I'm fine." he lied. "Really, I'm okay." he lied again. Levi didn't say anything else. He pulled out the sticky-note and glanced over the words scrawled across its yellow hue. His eyes caught on one of Hanji's comments.

_He just broke._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what your thoughts are on the story thus far!


	4. A Well-Deserved Walk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren has lunch with Armin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo thanks for sticking with me up until this point. Again, I'm posting in super short chapters, although hopefully the next one will be longer. Since it's 3:38 am as I write this now, I don't think any more chapters will be uploaded tonight, but tune in later for the next episode of the life of Eren Jeager.

Eren decided that his day couldn't get any worse than it already was. First he had to deal with Levi, some terrible-ass grim reaper, and then he had to deal with Mikasa thinking he was an idiot. Not only that, but he'd run out of gauze for his arms and had to use tissues to bandage up his arms, and he could feel the material turning into mush underneath his long sleeves.

It would have to wait until after work to be remedied. This irritated Eren even more. The test went terribly, and he recalculated to a C at best. And Armin. Oh dear lord Armin. Eren loved his blond coconut-headed best friend to death, not literally, but sometimes he would get into these speeches that would be able to even make Ghandi go to war.

"Eren you need to take better care of yourself."  The constant scratching made it unbareably obvious to Armin that his best frined had lasped again.

Eren, of course, huffed and denied mistreating his body. "I'm fine Armin. Really. Truly."

Armin squinted doubtfully. "You ran out of the gauze I bought you, didn't you?"

Eren looked down at his hands. After the last bout with his father, he had all but used up the medical supplies Armin had generously donated to him.

The blond sighed. "You need to tell me when you need something, Eren. I can't be of any use to you unless you talk to me." Eren had only started closing off within the past three years or so, and the past six months had revealed the worst of it all. Eren hadn't only closed off, he'd shut off. He'd broken.

"Look I just noticed today, okay. Even if I told you there's nothing you could've done about it."

"Well just keep me in the know." Armin scrunched up his face, very clearly communicating some deep-rooted maternal instinct.

Eren smiled. It was only partly fake, and that counted for something, right? It was disgusting to him how normal this kind of conversation had become. How he'd perfected the art of smiling without emotion. How he just felt like something was wrong, but bottled it up inside. He couldn't let it out. Not yet. Not ever.

The school's ancient bells rang out in signal for the next class. Eren and Armin walked inside, but Eren split off to go to the bathroom while Amin went head. It was never Eren's intention to actually attend class. No. He decided to go for a walk. A well-deserved walk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you thought in the comments! Any and all support is much appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> Have any suggestions or comments? Let me know! I love to hear from people.


End file.
